Thursday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time

Today's Mass Readings

Today’s first reading and gospel passage point to the all-important theme of love. Ah, love. Just the word evokes tender feelings and thoughts of peace. Or does it?

Paul’s take on love in Colossians is a beautiful and poetic passage, full of great advice. It makes sense, and it is also inspiring. But at the same time, it is challenging. This is not a warm, fuzzy love. This is a love that comes from Jesus Christ. In other words, it is a sacrificial love. It requires much of us because much has been given to us in Christ Jesus. God first loved us, and Jesus died for us out of his love for us.

We see the challenges of this love reflected in our gospel passage from Luke. Jesus instructs his disciples to love their enemies. He notes that even sinners can love those who also love them, but that it’s hard to do good to those who maltreat you. It’s hard to forgive even people that clearly don’t deserve it.

Except that, of course, WE did not deserve to be forgiven, and God forgives us anyway. This should be a humbling realization for us. Think about how we often feel about and act toward those who offend us or even simply annoy us. We avoid them, we talk behind their backs, we mull over negative thoughts about them, and, in short, we allow our attitudes toward them to detract from our attitude toward Christ. The time we spend judging or condemning is time that could better be spent glorifying God in prayer and action.

In other words, we fail to put on love and to let love dictate everything that we do. Our culture tells us that love is a feeling. But Paul’s phrase “put on love,” makes it seem more like an action. Like clothing, we can put on love. We can make a decision to act in loving ways even toward people who certainly do not evoke in us tender feelings of love. Loving our enemies does not mean necessarily mean liking them; it means being kind to them and forgiving, praying for them and doing good to them even despite our negative feelings toward them.

It’s hard, but we can do it, especially if we remember two things. First, we put on love “in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Col 3:17). Again, the love of God is what makes this all possible. Secondly, we remember that Paul is addressing a community here, and today we also read this letter of his as a Church. Putting on love as Paul describes it is hard, but it is easier when others are doing it too. We are called to this love not simply as individuals but as a Church.

Today, let us take some time to think of areas where we need to be more loving or sympathetic to others. How can we rely on others to help keep us accountable to putting on love? Is there anyone (living or dead) that we can use as a model for this?

- Maria Morrow